Loch Ness DNA Study Suggests 'Monster' May be a Giant Eel

Sep 5, 2019

The highly-anticipated results of an environmental DNA study of Loch Ness indicate that the legendary 'monster' said to reside at the site could be a giant eel. The ambitious project, which generated considerable excitement in scientific and cryptozoological circles when it was first announced in April of 2017, was the brainchild of geneticist Neil Gemmell of New Zealand. During the summer of 2018, he and a team of researchers took 250 water samples from throughout Loch Ness. This material was then shipped off to labs around the world where any DNA that could be found in those samples was extracted and compared against genetic databases of known creatures.

Following a few headline-making hints earlier this year, the findings of the project were finally revealed in an announcement on Thursday. For fans of the idea that the Loch Ness Monster could be a remnant aquatic dinosaur somehow still living at the location, Gemmell had some disappointing news. "We can't find any evidence of a creature that's remotely related to that in our environmental-DNA sequence data," he said, "So, sorry, I don't think the plesiosaur idea holds up based on the data that we have obtained."